Daredevil Season 2 Review: Episodes 9-13

Here it is folks. My review of the final episodes of Daredevil season 2 on Netflix. We've already talked about episodes 1-4 and episodes 5-8, so here I'll give my impressions of episodes 9-13. Here goes!

To start off, I think episode 9, titled "Seven Minutes in Heaven" is by far this season's stand-out episode and it may even be the best of the series so far; no surprise that it features Vincent D'onofrio's Wilson Fisk. In it, we take a deep dive into what's been going on with Fisk since Daredevil took him down at the end of season 1. Turns out, he's been fairly busy taking over the prison. In the present day, his rise to power intersects with a new inmate: Frank Castle a.k.a. the Punisher. Fisk sees an opportunity to co-opt Castle to help solidify his hold on the prison.

The fact that this episode is so great speaks directly to the strength of the character development in this show. Both of these characters are so fully fleshed out and fascinating on a very deep level, the drama writes itself!

Unfortunately, it was all down hill for me after episode 9. That's not to say there weren't some cool things to see, but the Punisher story line took a big back seat to the Hand and Elektra's story line which I found to be pretty boring. Elektra is a badass character and her dynamic with Matt is entertaining to watch, but I just couldn't get on board with all the mystical stuff and honestly, Stick is my LEAST favorite character on the show and he features pretty heavily in this back set of episodes and the payoff of that story is pretty weak. Just seemed like filler. 

The finale was lackluster as well. Sure, the action was excellent and Charlie Cox continues to impress me with his performance as Matt/Daredevil, but it was all pretty predictable and run-of-the-mill. Hero faces off against villain, unlikely allies come together to defeat villain. Throw in a shocking death scene that was totally telegraphed and an identity reveal cliff-hanger and you have Smallville, circa 2006.

All things considered though, season 2 improves upon the already great season 1. The character moments are stronger than ever and the action is probably the best on TV right now. If only they were a little more inventive with the stories themselves. Oh well, nothing's perfect.

What did you think about Daredevil season 2? What are your predictions for season 3? Comment and let me know.